


reading between the lines

by kelstabulous



Series: i'll be the one (if you want me to) [1]
Category: Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-15
Updated: 2013-04-15
Packaged: 2017-12-08 13:37:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/761932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelstabulous/pseuds/kelstabulous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel (?) to <a href="http://imaginarycircus.tumblr.com/post/45364375612/yesknopemaybe-lets-chat-ok-lets-try-this">Let's Chat</a>, <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/721479">Too Many Variables</a>, and <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/723201">A Chat Unexpected</a>. Darcy's musings, and he <em>finally</em> says what he means.</p>
            </blockquote>





	reading between the lines

**Author's Note:**

  * For [imaginarycircus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginarycircus/gifts), [aeternamente](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeternamente/gifts), [Realmer06](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Realmer06/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Let's Chat](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/20194) by imaginarycircus. 



> This makes a lot more sense if you read [Let's Chat](http://imaginarycircus.tumblr.com/post/45364375612/yesknopemaybe-lets-chat-ok-lets-try-this) by imaginarycircus, [Too Many Variables](http://archiveofourown.org/works/721479) by aeternamente, and [A Chat Unexpected](http://archiveofourown.org/works/723201) by Realmer06 first (in that order). This hasn't been beta-ed (because I don't have a beta...), so I apologize if it's a little wonky.

Lizzie all but dragged Darcy out of the house, shouting to her family that they were going for a walk, that they shouldn’t wait up, and no, that Darcy was not interested in whatever gelatine creation her mother was concocting. She slammed the door behind them and shrugged into a coat as she rushed down the sidewalk.

“I’m so sorry you had to deal with… that.” Lizzie cringed as she glanced back at her house. “My family can be terribly overwhelming.”

Darcy smiled, slipping his hands into his pants pockets. “I used to think that. Now I just find them terribly… endearing.”

Lizzie stopped, looking at him quizzically. “Endearing? How so?”

“You all care about each other, so much so that you’ll do absolutely anything, despite how frustrating or irritating or absolutely ridiculous it is, to make sure that your loved ones are as happy as possible.” He looked away from her and smiled sheepishly. “I’d thought that I’d never find anything like what you have with your family with anyone else but GiGi.” He met her eyes again. “A few months ago I realized I was wrong.”

Lizzie flushed, and started walking again, quicker this time. “I- I thought we could talk in the park. By the pond. It’s awfully nice this time of year. It’s where I used to go when I needed to clear my head.”

“Sounds lovely.”

They walked in silence, both entirely lost in thought. It wasn’t a long walk, but it was long enough for Darcy to begin questioning whether or not this had been his best idea. Sure, it hadn’t been entirely his idea, Lizzie did invite him, but he had misread Elizabeth Bennet in the past. The past. It had a way of haunting him. His interactions with this captivating woman in the last few months had been tainted by words said at a wedding, a wedding that felt like it had happened ages ago. And even when he had tried to move forward, he was reminded of what he had lost by a flash of red hair and pair of blue eyes that burned into his conscience. She had made an imprint in his life, an imprint that he dearly wished to make permanent.

Darcy had never been an emotional man, nor an affectionate one. Only his sister had seen him cry, and she alone was the recipient of his ministrations. The woman walking in front of him made him want to change. Even now, with her feelings unknown and their future, together or not, unsure, he longed to reach out and wrap an arm around her waist, to entwine his fingers in hers, to press his lips to her forehead and whisper sweet nothings in her ear. Lizzie made him feel small and giant, beginning and endless, empty and full and happy and sad and so delightfully human – an ironic feeling, when he considered how she had initially regarded him. But more than that, she made him want to be a better person. And he believed that she did make him better, that she forced him to live up to his full potential, to be more than what he was.

“Should we sit?” Lizzie brought Darcy out of his musings, motioning towards a secluded bench overlooking a small pond. He gestured, suggesting that she should sit first. Only after she had settled did he take a seat next to her, turning to face the enigma of a woman who had flitted in and out of his life for the last year.

“Firstly, I wanted to thank you.” Lizzie shushed him before he could protest. “No, let me finish. You already know that what you did for my family, for Lydia, is invaluable. There is no way we could ever repay you, though I doubt you’d let us.”

“I didn’t help you because I wanted recognition.”

“I know, you did it because of GiGi.” Lizzie took this moment to glance down at her hands. “You were only finishing what you started last year. You’re a great brother.”

Darcy sighed with exasperation and scrubbed his face with his hands. “That wasn’t the reason either, though it was a helpful motivation.” He lightly touched Lizzie’s arm, brushing the fabric of her jacket gently with his fingertips. "I was only thinking of you."

Darcy watched her face as Lizzie processed this new information, watched as it moved from surprise to something that looked like happiness, then finally to pain. Still an amateur at reading Lizzie Bennet, Darcy reached out to touch her arm again, but she pulled away.

“Why didn’t you call me?” Lizzie made eye contact with him, and refused to look away. Those eyes again, staring into him as if they knew his deepest secrets and darkest desires. He had watched hours of those eyes, seen them laugh and cry, he’d even seen them filled with the most overwhelming rage, rage that was usually directed at him. However, he had never thought he’d see them filled with heartache, especially not heartache caused by him. “I thought we were friends, Darcy. We were getting along so well at Pemberley, and you asked… I mean, you offered…” She glanced at the pond.

“I had things I needed to do before I could involve you.” Darcy’s face darkened as he recalled what he and Fitz had done that night. It hadn’t been easy to get the assault charges dropped, but he had never been more thankful for the fact that his father had gone to Harvard with one of the District Attorneys. “You and your family have gone through enough as a result of that man’s actions. I didn’t want your lives to be made anymore difficult.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you did it, or why you didn’t call to tell me that you’re the reason my baby sister is sleeping through the night again.” She quickly tried to blink away unshed tears.

“I think – or at least, I hope, that you know why I did what I did.” He took a deep breath and broke into the speech he had planned for this moment. “Lizzie Bennet, my feelings haven’t changed since the fall. If anything, they’ve grown stronger as I’ve gotten to know you and the people that you love.” He smiled sheepishly and pulled his hand away. “I helped Lydia because you care for her, and I care for you. No other reason. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to feel indebted to me, or as if you had any sort of… obligation towards me.”

“Oh.”

“Oh?” His shoulders drooped. “I understand if your feelings haven’t changed, Lizzie. I hope, though, that we can still be friends.”

“Yes!” Lizzie exclaimed, and then quickly shook her head as she saw the dejection come over his expression. “I mean no, I mean… God, for two people who specialize in communication, we sure suck at it.” She laughed nervously, and rested her hand gently on his. “Will, I don’t want to be friends. I haven’t wanted to be friends since that day I had to leave Pemberley.” She kissed him shyly on the cheek. “I’d like to be so much more than friends, because I was so very wrong about you, because you are a sensitive, passionate, kind-hearted, talented, amazing man, and because you protect those you care about.” Lizzie ran her thumb across his knuckles, and met his eyes. “That’s why I want to be with you, not because of what you did, but because of why you did it.” She smiled, and leaned over to kiss him, moving her hand up his arm, squeezing it gently. “I guess you could say my feelings have changed drastically since October” she quipped as she pulled away.

Darcy looked at her curiously. “You called me Will.”

“Out of everything I just said, that’s what you took away from it?”

“You’ve called me Darcy from the moment we met, if not before.” He grinned devilishly at her. “I believe that’s what you call ‘reading between the lines’, if I’m not mistaken.” He wrapped an arm around her waist, and pulled her close. “Now, if you don’t mind, I think I could use some further clarification, Miss Bennet.” He tangled his fingers in her hair and kissed her, holding her close. In that moment, Darcy felt like his life was simultaneously drawing to a close and coming to a new beginning. As he pressed his lips to hers, he knew that this was a new volume in the anthology of his life, and Lizzie was going to be Chapter One.


End file.
